Future Summit Stampede Party

​The room where Stampede Week 2026 actually gets to work.

While the rest of Stampede unfolds in tents and suites, the Future Stampede Party opens the week by bringing 150 senior leaders across government, institutional capital, and industry into one room to align on the major projects, AI infrastructure, and energy build-out shaping Alberta's next decade.

Held at the gateway of Stampede Week - before the parties, before the suites, before everyone scatters - this is the executive read on where Alberta builds next. Expect candid cross-sector dialogue, introductions that actually go somewhere, and the kind of warm, distinctly Albertan hospitality the week is known for.

The right people, in the right setting, at the moment that sets the tone for everything that follows - and a first look at Alberta at its most ambitious.

Why this room

• ​Government, institutional capital, and industry operators on one agenda

• ​Executive audience

• ​Pre-Stampede positioning — executives are in town, calendars are open, evening commitments haven't started

• ​First public read on themes that anchor Future Summit 2026 (November 9-10)

​Opening Keynote

Harish Consul - Founder & CEO, Ocgrow Ventures 35+ years building, scaling, and investing in high-growth businesses globally. Early investor in Amazon, Shopify, Coupang, Viome, and Garuda. Boards: Calgary Economic Development, Alberta-India Economic Corridor, Platform Calgary. Featured speaker at Global Energy Show Canada 2026. Opens the room on the capital path between Alberta's cost advantage and the $660-725B in 2026 hyperscaler capex deploying now.

Featured Panel - Major projects, AI & the future of Alberta

Four contested positions, one argument resolved in 45 minutes. Alberta holds the cheapest 15-year hyperscale AI compute cost in North America. 21.1 GW sit in the AESO queue against 1.2 GW allocated. The framework is law (Bills 8 and 12, Royal Assent Dec 11, 2025). The execution layer connecting that framework to actually built megawatts is what this panel works.

​Wish Bakshi - Founder & AI Systems Engineer, AQ Energy · Visiting Professor of AI, University of Calgary & Queen's Smith School of Business

Designs AI systems for enterprises across operations and commercial units — trading algorithms for power, natural gas, and NGL markets. Recent work architecting AI and analytics for power plants, AI data centers, and pipelines facing demand from AI-driven infrastructure. Returning 2025 Stampede Party forum carrier. Carries: Alberta is importing compute by 2027 unless the policy stack catches the developer timeline.

​Kyle Reiling - Executive Director, Greenview Industrial Gateway

20+ years of economic development experience with a central focus on industrial growth. Past roles include Manager of Industrial Development at Strathcona County, Manager of Economic Development and Tourism at Sturgeon County, VP at Landrex, Director of Industrial Development at WSP. Worked on Shell Scotford, Aux Sable, North West Redwater Partnership, and the IPPL Petrochemical Complex. Carries: greenfield AI infrastructure lands in counties, not in capitals. The siting question is municipal.

​Natalie Heffernan - Director of Business Development, Major Projects, Spartan Controls

Originally from Saskatchewan; career evolved from mineral land negotiation and major energy infrastructure into broader leadership across energy transition, Indigenous partnerships, and emerging major projects in Western Canada. Works at the intersection of industry, government, Indigenous Nations, developers, and capital groups to advance complex projects from early strategy through execution. Scope spans carbon capture, power generation, industrial development, data centers, and Indigenous-led economic initiatives. Board: Modern Miracle Network. Carries: industrial automation across Alberta's operators is the bottleneck nobody priced in the compute-demand forecast.

​Koleya Karringten — Executive Director, Canadian Bitcoin Consortium

One of Canada's foremost voices in digital innovation and blockchain adoption. Since 2017, she has led the Consortium to become the country's largest national blockchain association, uniting corporate, academic, and government stakeholders to drive responsible growth of the technology. Founder of Blockchain Insurance Inc., bridging digital-asset innovation with compliance and risk management. Serves on Finance Canada's Anti-Money Laundering Committee and the Government of Canada's Economic Policy Council. Recipient of the King Charles III Medal and the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal. Carries: the demand-side argument the panel answers to — the next compute wave isn't only AI, and Canada's digital sovereignty is decided at regulatory speed.

​Moderated by Josh Rainbow, Founder & CEO of Future Summit.

Schedule

1:00 – 1:30 PM - Networking, drinks & appetizers
1:30 – 1:45 PM - Welcome remarks
1:45 – 2:30 PM - Featured panel: Major projects, AI & the future of Alberta
2:30 – 2:45 PM - Q&A
2:45 – 4:30 PM - Closing networking

​Access

Invitation-controlled. Future Summit members and partner-network executives confirmed first.

About Future Summit

A sector alignment platform routing policy, capital, and industry decision-makers around Canada's compute-energy-capital corridor. Calgary-based. futuresummit.ai · @futurexsummit · Analog × AI